Ferdinand Heim

Ferdinand Heim (27 February 1895-14 November 1971) was a Generalleutnant in the Heer of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Biography
Ferdinand Heim was born in Reutlingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, German Empire on 27 February 1895, and he served in the Imperial German Army during World War I. He reached the rank of Oberst in the Wehrmacht in August 1939, and he served as Chief of Staff of the German 6th Army under Walther von Reichenau during preparations for the invasion of Britain from the Cotentin Peninsula. Heim was prominent in planning Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and he commanded the 14th Panzer Division at the Second Battle of Kharkov and at Rostov in 1942 during the invasion of the Soviet Union. On 1 November 1942, he took command of the XLVIII Panzer Corps during the Battle of Stalingrad, and his corps' two weakened divisions barely broke out to the west in 1943, leading to Adolf Hitler sacking him. He was held in prison at Moabit from January to April 1943, when he was sent to a military hospital at Ulm. In August 1944, he was sent to command the festung at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and he was ordered to hold it to the last man. Despite this, he surrendered to the Canadian Army on 23 September 1944, and he left captivity in 1948, dying in Ulm in 1971.